Charges filed in gun-wielding incident

An Arkadelphia man faces felony charges after allegedly waving a .45 caliber handgun at a group of people.

Cody Lynn Bolt, 48, of 1302 Richardson St., is has been formally charged with aggravated assault, a Class D felony punishable by up to six year in prison.

Bolt was arrested on the evening of May 10 after police were dispatched to his residence for a report of a man with a gun. The person who called the Arkadelphia Police Department relayed that there was an ongoing verbal altercation between several people at the scene.

A Henderson State University officer was on scene first and observed a crowd near 14th and Richardson streets, as well as a white male "standing on the sidewalk armed with a black handgun," according to an affidavit on file at the Clark County Circuit Clerk's Office.

Bolt was ordered to drop the weapon, and he complied, the affidavit states. The Henderson officer secured the weapon, and Arkadelphia officers arrived on scene afterward.

Of the "several" witnesses at the scene, everyone gave similar statements that Bolt had "pulled into his yard with his vehicle and spun his tires to throw debris onto nearby parked vehicles," according to the affidavit, which indicates that Oleater Quarles walked toward Bolt to confront him about his actions.

The two then apparently "engaged in a verbal altercation that involved shouting and cussing" and as "several others" walked toward Quarles, Bolt "produced a handgun and waved it, pointing the weapon toward the crowd" the affidavit states.

Bolt told police he didn't intentionally spin his tires and that the crowd "began yelling at him as he exited his vehicle." He said he then retrieved the gun from the residence and went back outside when "several people began yelling and threatened him harm."

Additionally, according to Bolt, a man punched him in the mouth although the affidavit says he could not identify the man who hit him and had no visible injuries.

Bolt has since been released from custody at the Clark County Detention Center.